Many consumer oriented industries, e.g. the consumer electronics industry, have a critical need for blended thermoplastic compositions that provide very high stiffness with balanced impact resistance, are colorable from white to black, chemically resistant to everyday chemicals (and even strong acids and bases), possess excellent flow for thin wall processing, and transparent to wireless signals. In order to meet the requirements of the manufacture of desired articles in various consumer oriented industries, including the consumer electronics industry, current blended thermoplastic materials utilize use high flow crystalline resins such as polyether ether ketone polymers (PEEK) or specialty nylon with glass reinforcing fibers to provide sufficient stiffness and impact resistance. Materials containing PEEK desirably have low dielectric interference to wireless signals. However, none of these resins are colorable to white, that limits their use to structural elements that either are not visible or where visible they require a secondary over-molding to achieve appropriate aesthetics.
It would be desirable to utilize blends comprising polycarbonate (PC) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) in applications currently utilizing blended thermoplastic compositions with glass fiber reinforced PEEK or specialty nylon. PC/PBT blends could offer a desired balance of ductility, ultra high stiffness, low dielectric constants, and colorable in a manner to achieve desired aesthetics.
Despite significant research and development efforts, there remains a need for blended thermoplastic compositions that effectively address the appropriate balance of properties required in the consumer electronics industry, i.e. blended thermoplastic compositions that are ductile yet have very high stiffness, while retaining desired dielectric properties and are colorable from white to black.